210 ANTIQUITIES OP SELBORNE. 



though eaten in a very small quantity, are certain death to horses and 

 cows, and that in a few minutes. An horse tied to a yew-hedge, or to 

 a faggot-stack of dead yew, shall be found dead before the owner can be 

 aware that any danger is at hand ; and the writer has been several 

 times a sorrowful witness to losses of this kind among his friends ; 

 and in the island of Ely had once the mortification to see nine young 

 steers or bullocks of his own all lying dead in an heap from browsing a 

 little on an hedge of yew in an old garden, into which they had broken 

 in snowy weather. Even the clippings of a yew hedge have destroyed 

 a whole dairy of cows when thrown inadvertently into a yard. And yet 

 sheep and turkeys, and, as park-keepers say, deer will crop these trees 

 with impunity. 



Some intelligent persons assert that the branches of yew, while green, 

 are not noxious ; and that they will kill only when dead and withered, 

 by lacerating the stomach ; but to this assertion we cannot by any 

 means assent, because, among the number of cattle that we have 

 known fall victims to this deadly food, not one has been found, when 

 it was opened, but had a lump of green yew in its paunch. True it is, 

 that yew-trees stand for twenty-years or more in a field, and no bad 

 consequences ensue; but at some time or other cattle, either from 

 wantonness when full, or from hunger when empty (from both which 

 circumstances we have seen them perish), will be meddling, to their 

 certain destruction ; the yew seems to be a very improper tree for a 

 pasture-field. 



Antiquaries seem much at a loss to determine at what period this 

 tree first obtained a place in church-yards. A statute passed A.D. 1307 

 and 35 Edward I. the title of which is " Ne rector arbores in cemeterio 

 prosternat." Now if it is recollected that we seldom see any other very 

 large or ancient tree in a churchyard but yews, this statute must have 

 principally related to this species of tree ; and consequently their 

 being planted in churchyards is of much more ancient date than the 

 year 1307. 



As to the use of these trees, possibly the more respectable parishioners 

 were buried under their shade before the improper custom was intro- 

 duced of burying within the body of the church, where the living are to 

 assemble. Deborah, Rebekah's nurse,* was buried under an oak ; the 

 most honourable place of interment probably next to the cave of 

 Machpelah,f which seems to have been appropriated to the remains 

 of the patriarchal family alone. 



The farther use of the yew-trees might be as a screen to churches, by 

 their thick foliage, from the violence of winds ; perhaps also for the 

 purpose of archery, the best long bows being made of that material ; 

 and we do not hear that they are planted in the churchyards of other 

 parts of Europe, where long bows were not so much in use. They might 

 also be placed as a shelter to the congregation assembling before the 

 church doors were opened, and as an emblem of mortality by their 

 funereal appearance. In the south of England every churchyard almost 

 has its tree, and some two ; but in the north, we understand, few are 

 to be found. 



* Gen. xxxv. 8. t Gen. xxiii. 9. 



